subject: Reasons To Replace A Hot Tar Roof [print this page] In this article, Mario Williams, a partner at Lone Star Roofing, explains the most common reasons for needing to replace a hot tar roof.
These days, the majority of commercial roofs out there are what we call built up or hot tar roofs. Because of this, we repair or replace hundreds of these roofs each year in our business at Lone Star Roofing. Of course, when you start talking about the reasons we are repairing this specific type of roof, there might be a couple of reasons that are common.
The biggest reason is, obviously, because the roof is leaking on you. Thats a good reason to replace a roof. If your roof is leakingwhatever type of roofing material you havethat is never a good sign. One mistake people often make, though, is to think that one little drip means an entire roof needs to be replaced. Oftentimes, a hot tar roof doesnt really need to be replaced at the first sign of a leak.
If you stand in front of a leak coming through your roof and you just get a few little drips, then you probably have time to get someone to come out and fix the problem as long as you do so in a reasonable amount of time. In situation like this, where the leak is minimal, I would advise that you dont replace the entire roof right away unless you have to.
Instead, I would advise people to patch their roof in the necessary areas. There are a number of ways that you can patch a hot tar roofthese roofs are highly patchable. So you can easily hire someone to just come out to your property to patch it up. That is not a bad idea for a lot of people, since it can save them money.
Now, if you let that leak go and you neglect itor if you have been patching it and patching it for years, and the insulation has gotten wet in the meantimethen you may have gone beyond the point or repair, and you may now have a reason why you are going to need to get a whole new hot tar roof.
What you dont want is wet insulation. To help people understand, there is the roof deck in your building, there is the insulation, and then you have the roofing. If you let it leak too much, then the insulation will get wet with water. In that case, you have to tear all that up. You just cant go over wet insulation with more roofing and trap all that moisture in there because you will cause a problem with your roof deck. And once you have a problem with your roof deck, you are going to be inflating your bill because you have a whole other issue to resolve.
So once your leak has gotten down to your insulation and caused wetness, you need to replace your entire hot taror built uproof. Before that, most building owners or homeowners can simply call in a roofing contractor to do a bit of patching, which is going to save them a lot of money right up front. But, like I said, far and away the most common reason a person needs to replace his or her hot tar roof is because of a leak that has sprung up and wasnt fixed quickly enough.
